The Way Back Home by Oliver Jeffers

Template:Infoboxsort Oliver Jeffers has achieved pretty universal acclaim in the world of picture books: critical acclaim, rewards and popularity with readers. The Way Back Home returns to his character called simply Boy, known from his How to Catch a Star and Lost and Found. This time Boy finds an aeroplane in the cupboard and decides to give it a ride. After running out of petrol, he finds himself stuck on the moon with an alien who had just crash landed there too. They make friends and together they find a way to help each other get out of the scrape.

The story is OK: nothing special in itself, but a nice, simple tale with a bit of moral and a great sweep of "everything is possible" so typical of children's imagination. But of course the story comes to life and reaches a completely different level thanks to the wonderful artwork that has became Jeffers' trademark.

It's delicate, mesmerising and sophisticated, cartoony and simple, almost minimalist, but also utterly magical; subtle and rich. It works perfectly with the story, and lifts it from a simple tale to a dreamlike quality that will captivate not only children but many an adult too.

I particularly liked all the double-spreads with sky, sea, space and mountains: mostly large spaces filled with colour and the contrastingly small characters doing whatever they were doing according to a logic of a children's fantasy or a dream.

I am generally a word-oriented reader, and thus I would give this book 4 stars, those who buy their picture books more for pictures, it would be probably a 4.5 if not 5 star example. Definitely worth a look, worth a read and, if it's your thing, worth buying too, for all pre-schoolers aged 2.5 to about 4.

Thanks to HarperCollins for sending this to the BookBag.

If this book appeals to you then you might also enjoy Shine Moon Shine by David Conway.

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You can read more book reviews or buy The Way Back Home by Oliver Jeffers at Amazon.co.uk Amazon currently charges £2.99 for standard delivery for orders under £20, over which delivery is free.
You can read more book reviews or buy The Way Back Home by Oliver Jeffers at Amazon.com.

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